Trump critics point out an unusual fact about jury member that found him guilty

Jurors in Donald Trump’s hush money criminal trial – which returned a guilty verdict on all 34 counts on Thursday night – had to maintain a level of impartiality around the former US president which, to others, may seem impossible, given the Republican’s trademark inflammatory and controversial nature.

A number of potential jurors had to be dismissed as they felt they couldn’t be fair in their assessment of the evidence, and before New York Justice Juan Merchan sent the jurors out to deliberate, he reminded them not to allow their verdict “to be influenced by bias or prejudice”.

“A fair juror must be mindful of any stereotypes or attitudes about people or about groups of people that the juror may have, and must not allow those stereotypes or attitudes to affect their verdict,” he said.

The case, based on the charge – which he denied – that Trump falsified business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels, as part of a conspiracy to corruptly influence the 2016 presidential election, means the Apprentice star is the first ever US president to receive a criminal conviction.

Jurors were required to receive a unanimous verdict on all the counts against him, and while they remain anonymous, certain details have been revealed during the trial about the makeup of the 12-person group.

The jury comprised salesmen, investment bankers, lawyers and speech therapists, and information was also disclosed about the outlets they turn to for news – with one juror (Juror 2, a married investment banker from Hell’s Kitchen) confirming he follows Trump’s Truth Social posts which are reposted on Twitter/X.

Truth Social, of course, is Trump’s own social media platform, which he launched in 2022 following his Twitter ban in January 2021 after the insurrection on the US Capitol.

Now, what with Trump being found guilty in the New York criminal trial, social media users are pointing out that even an individual who gets their news from a source as questionable as Truth Social (albeit via a second-hand source on Twitter) believed the former president was guilty of the crimes alleged:

Speaking following the jury’s verdict, Trump fumed the trial was “rigged” and “a disgrace”, and that he was actually “a very innocent man”.

“We have a country that’s in big trouble, but this was a rigged decision right from day one, with a conflicted judge who should have never been allowed to try this case.

“And we’ll keep fighting, we’ll fight till the end, and we’ll win because our country has gone to hell. We don’t have the same country anymore - we have a divided mess.

“We’re a nation in decline - serious decline - millions and millions of people pouring into our country right now, from prisons and from mental institutions, terrorists, and they’re taking over our country,” he said.

Trump is due to be sentenced at Manhattan criminal court on 11 July.

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